Getting into the swing of things

We have smiles!!!  Excuse the chin folks--he comes by it honestly!!  See he looks a little like me! :)

Camden's first day of his new school!

Well--it's been almost 2 weeks since Jason left and we are slowly but surely getting into the swing of things here on our own.  It hasn't been easy, in fact, there's moments I've wanted to throw in the towel and hand my kids over to anyone who was willing to take them.  .  .okay--maybe I wouldn't go that far, but we've definitely had our challenges.  I'm sure as time goes on, there will be many more to come, that's just life.  

Camden has had almost 2 full weeks of his school and he LOVES it!!  I started carpool today (which basically means I sit in my car and they come and get him and bring him to me)--I wasn't going to do this, but it's a lot of work getting Evan and Camden out of the car, walking him to class and then going back to the car and getting everyone situated back in.  Don't you judge me-- :)--my back hurts people, those carriers are not meant  for babies to be carried in them!  Anyway, he thought that was the neatest thing ever today when they came and got him out of the car, and then brought him to me this afternoon!  He is also trying my patience, although, it's been much less this week than it was last week.  I'm learning to choose my battles, and to remember that I'm the adult so yelling back isn't necessarily the way to go.  

Evan is doing pretty well!!  He's giving me a solid 5-6 hr block of sleep at night, and this week I've started slightly stretching out times between feedings, and putting him down for naps in his crib!  There's been a lot less unscheduled crying this week than we had last week!  Don't get me wrong, he still has his moments--but for the most part I can predict it, typically between 7-9pm and if I hold him, he'll quit!  

The hardest part about all this is just learning to cope with everything on my own.  I'm such a talker, when I have a problem I usually vent about it with Jason and then together we figure out how to fix it.  .  .we still talk, but now I just get defensive if he offers advice--HOW WOULD HE KNOW HE'S NOT HERE!!  It's lonely not having your partner around, even if we did just sit in silence and watch TV--at least I had someone to fight with over the remote control, or to talk to about if dinner was good or not (I can't even get Camden to try anything)!  I've been able to talk to him almost every day, so that helps--although I know as he gets deeper into training and then heads out to wherever it is they are sending him these conversations will be less and less frequent.  

GOALS. . .everybody's making them

So back to those goals I spoke about in my last post! I really am going to make some, and just to be sure I stay on track I will list them here for all to see. . . :)--just don't hold me to them!

#1--get on a workout schedule, I seriously have not worked out since Camden was born, or really since before Camden was born b/c I didn't do much working out when I was pregnant--EVERYTHING jiggles (YUCK)
#2--start getting myself more organized, most of the time I feel so scattered I can't think straight, hopefully this will help me to start being on time more!
#3--start a new project every month--PROJECT FOR JANUARY: CLEAN OUT PANTRY, and CABINETS in kitchen (eventually this goal will lead up to me cleaning my closet, I would look for this to happen later, when I've had a chance to implement #1)
#4--learn to have more patience and take the time to enjoy my blessings
#5--be more positive
#6--floss my teeth more, for some reason this chore always gets pushed to last--I need to be better about it :)
#7--start baby books--I've never even done one for Camden, I'll admit I've never actually seen the one my mom did for me-so Camden and Evan probably won't be begging to see theirs either

Lucky #7--that will be enough for now, I can add more later if I want!

While we are on this topic--Camden has made some goals for himself as well (OKAY OKAY--I helped, but he said okay so I'm going to document them as well!)

#1--learn to eat more things than pb&j, spaghettios, and ckn nuggets from "Old McDonald"
#2--learn to do what mommy says the first time so she doesn't have to raise her voice :)
#3--learn to bathe myself--this one will come with time, but we are already working on it

Evan's goals are to sleep through the night, and just not cry so much! :)

So it sounds like we will all be pretty busy while Daddy is away! Hopefully that will make it all FLY BY!!

Day 2 of a very long journey

Well, I figure it's time for me to try to pick this thing up again!! I really enjoy reading my friends' blogs and keeping up with where they are and seeing their families grow! Since we have so much changing in our lives right now, I thought I would try to pick my blog back up! As many of you know, and some of you don't know--my husband Jason has been called up to be deployed and began active duty a few days ago (I'm sure none of these terms are correct, but whatever, you'll soon learn that I do not come from a military background and I'm feeling my way through all of this the best that I can!). We also just recently added to our family with another son! We have Camden 3, Evan 6 weeks, and of course Penny-dog 5!

I have several reasons for this blog. One is to keep family and friends updated on what is going on with us, and to let them know how Jason is doing (although those updates will be very vague b/c I won't know much), another reason is to get my feelings out there rather than keeping things bottled up!! This is also a good way to record my boys day to day lives (if I get to it day to day :))!!

While Jason is gone I have many goals for myself, I find this significant because I've never been a real goal setter. . .or maybe I have and I've just never documented them! Jason and I have been together since I was 18 years old, I've never really been without him, so my way of getting through all of this is to hopefully just keep busy! I quit my job to take care of the boys (SCARY), and I'm sure they will occupy most of my time--but I'm hoping I will have some time to meet my personal goals as well!


Wish me luck!!

Why do women have to do everything?

(caution, if you are pregnant or wish to become pregnant--you may not want to read this!)

First of all, I would like to thank my friend Robert for the inspiration on changing the name of my blog. I had wanted to change it before but didn't really know what to change it to--so Robert thank you!!

Okay now, I've been thinking a lot lately about becoming a mom, and well, just being a woman in general. Men have it so darn easy. As females we start our journey at about 12-13 with the life changing event of menstruation. A monthly reminder of how easy men have it. As we get older it is pretty much our job to make sure that we don't get pregnant unexpectedly, and then once we are ready to get pregnant it is our job to make sure we are "doing it" at the right time of the month so that everything is fertilized properly. NOW--after that we have to grow and carry the baby, then we have to give birth to the baby. For some of us we are the only ones that can feed the baby, and for those of us who chose to (gasp) give our children formula we have to endure breast leakage, and engorged boobs for a week. . .all of this I can handle, being pregnant wasn't bad for me at all, and the giving birth part wasn't so bad either--this brings me to my biggest complaint of all: THE BELLY FULL OF JELLY. Now, above I have described everything that women have to go through in order to partake in the miracle of life, so why on earth do we also have to struggle with the belly full of jelly that comes after the baby is out of our body? It hardly seems fair-men just sit idly by and they don't have to worry about any of this, why do we have to do it all?? There should be a pill that you can take after you give birth that sucks up all of that "loose skin" (that's what i call it, it makes me feel better) that is left after you give birth. No amount of sit ups will ever put you back where you were before. OH AND HERE'S ANOTHER THING--why is it that EVERYTHING ends up in a different place? I had my baby 6 weeks early, so it truly didn't take me long to get back to fighting weight, however, nothing i own fits b/c my body is like a completely different shape now. . .this hardly seems fair. My hips and butt are bigger (yes, this was possible), my belly is flabby, and you know what else--my BOOBS are smaller than they ever were before (again, yes this is possible). YOU MEN HAVE IT EASY. . .you just have NO IDEA!

That being said, I wouldn't trade my new role in life for anything. Camden is just a cooing and a smiling up a storm and it almost makes that belly full of jelly melt away. . .(if it were only that easy!!) I guess you just have to take the good with the bad, I just wish the bad wouldn't mess with my figure! Not that it was perfect before, but at least it was managable. . .

:)

Week. . .oh forget it who even knows!!

Well, I'm back! As most of you know our little bundle of joy came around week 33 1/2 which explains why my blog suddenly stopped at week 32! I've been busy writing thank you notes, being a mom, and learning how to be a housewife--which by the way is not as easy or as fun as I had initially thought it would be!! The mom part is great, I love every minute of it, and really don't have any complaints--the housewife part on the other hand is really not what I was "maid" to do!! :) I'm getting better at it, I don't manage myself well when it comes to household chores--it can take me all afternoon to clean a bathroom b/c I hate it so much I'm constantly having to find other things to distract myself!! Other than the chore of cleaning the bathrooms (which I had to do before I was a full time maid) my life is great. Everything is falling into place, and now that we are on a good schedule and routine we will be changing everything again, in 2 weeks we head to the beach for 2 weeks and then after that I will have to learn to be a mom, maid, and work full time!! Then you'll really see me complaining I'm sure!!

I guess at this point I really should change the name of this blog to something else. First of all it didn't take 9 months for my baby to get here, and secondly he's here now so I'm no longer blogging on the joys of expecting!

Well, that's it for now. . .I hear "doody" calling, and "doody" is not patient!!